Key Question

Taj Mahal, India. Source: http://meerasubbarao.files.wordpress.com

The Key Question is the question that your research is aiming to answer. At the beginning of the research process, you know very little about the topic at hand. However, you need to be clear about what you are trying
to discover. By reducing your focus down to a single Key Question, it will help you to avoid wasting time on needless research, but also help you tell if your research has ultimately been
successful.

Creating a Key Question

In most cases the Key Question will be provided for you, but in some essays, you will be required to develop your
own key question.

Here is some advice to help you create your own key question:

Do not make it a 'closed question': Closed questions are questions that can be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, and
usually start with the words 'does', 'did', 'was' or 'are'. A great key question starts with either who, what, when, where, why, or how.

Be specific: Limit your topic by mentioning specific people, times or places.

Testing a Hypothesis

In some essays, you will be asked to assess the accuracy of someone else's hypothesis. This
kind of task will require you to look at all of the arguments being made and test these arguments based upon what your sources tell you. This is a great way of working out whether someone's claim
about the past is trustworthy, or if the are simply manipulating the facts.

The best way is to turn the hypothesis into a Key Question in order to begin your research.

For example, someone's hypothesis could be:

Constantine the Great founded the Catholic Church at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

Your Key Question could be:

What evidence is there that Constantine the Great founded the Catholic Church at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325?

Need a digital Research Journal?

History Skills Online has a ready-to-use Research Journal that follows these 9 steps and provides links back to the website to help you at each stage of your research. You can grab it here.